Downclocking 7811 GPU to reduce heat question..

Since the 9800m is pretty much an overclocked 8800m, I was wondering if downclocking it just a bit would help with the heat issues. I'd rather give up a few percent FPS and have my GPU running a lot cooler than keep those few frames and lower the life of the machine (as well as run that stupid fan all day lol).

So my question is - what to downclock to drop the most heat and lose the least performance? The core is 100mhz higher and the shaders are a lot higher, but I hear that it's the shaders that do most of the work. Do they also produce most of the heat, or is the core clock producing most of the heat?

Thanks for any advice!

 

Do not downclock your GPU. It is not an 8800m. It is not the same core. Don't believe everything you read(except what I am typing right now). And actually, your core clocks cause most heat. You can OC that GPU quite a bit higher than its stock clocks, and still only lick the lower 70s MAX. Just make sure you have the rear of your rig elevated, I found the Crysis DVD casing to be perfect..others use a book, a couple of CD jewels, or even some more creative ideas such as TV remotes. Just give the rear an elevation of approx 2-3"..I know you haven't, otherwise I wouldnt be typing this comment right now. Problem solved.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Rolodex-82410-Laptop-Stand/dp/B000JE7CMG

Seriously. You can get this thing at a Walmart for 20 bucks or less (I've seen it at Sam's Club too). Pair it with one of these (the biggest you can afford): http://www.vornado.com/CategoryDetail.aspx?ISC_Category=Personal Circulators

Trust me. You will never worry about temperatures again and it will MURDER the USB pads. The stand is mesh steel. It's the most circulation-friendly passive stand I've ever seen.

 

Haha, those are the exact ones that I use! I break off that lame black backstand, file the sharp edges of the welds, then put the little furniture feet stickys on the bottom. I then put my lame but very quiet 3-fan notebook cooler in between the plates so I have a fan blowing up to the CPU, GPU and the hard drive area each. And without that backplate, they fold up flat for travel

Great to see that others have caught on to this stand!

For anyone who hasn't been able to find it at Walmart, the Rolodex/Rubbermaid mesh laptop stands are NOT in the electronics section. They are in the OFFICE section around the other metal and plastic desk organizers (mine were on the shelf above the organizers).

 

Well thanks E, I appreciate your response. As I posted to Destructa, I already set up the mesh notebook stand and cooler for it, so that's taken care of.

But why not downclock just a bit to ensure the longest possible life? If it doesn't affect my gaming, or only makes me shut off specular and/or shadows to run a playable FPS, I'm good with that.

Reducing the heat should also preserve the GPU fan, which is a very overlooked notebook-killer. If that fails, and you can't get another one to replace it, you cannot run this notebook any more. At ALL. And the 7811's GPU fan comes on a LOT more than it needs too - it cranks up from 0 to high fan a couple times every so often just on the desktop (which can't be good for its life) and runs medium-high fan on pretty much every hard game.

Do you think dropping 50mhz on the core would affect FPS a huge amount? I saw a post from someone who was running around half stock clocks on core and memory, because his old app (think it was Rivatuner) wouldn't go higher xD. And he was getting 8600? in 3Dmark, vs the 9600 you get stock.

 

As E said, dont bother downclocking, the only way to reduce GPU heat is getting a cooler and propping up the notebook.

 

When you are in desktop, the CPU downclocks to 100/150/300 if you haven't disabled Powermiser. At least that's what nvidia system monitor reports. (RivaTuner seemed to think core was stuck at 600 for some reason) Do you really need to go lower than that?

 

Hi, actually E said not to, because he was assuming I didn't have any cooling in place. Nobody yet has said that it wouldn't work, or wouldn't help

For the record, I find a lot of cool abilities by doing what nobody else has. This being an overclocker's hangout, I'm pretty sure nobody here has underclocked their GPU and checked the temps. When I make the attempt, I'll post the results.

 

I dunno, my target was to change things so the 3-D Vista desktop doesn't cause the GPU fan to leap from low to HIGH every few minutes. It's both annoying and a sign of something out-of-kilter with the setup, and as I said, a fan you can't replace is an oft-overlooked notebook killer.

I asked elsewhere if anyone had Arctic Silvered their GPU and someone said that it wasn't worth it, so my next idea was to downclock a tad to see if it lowered the heat a significant amount.

I'll give it a try later this week and post the results.

 

wootage, what temps are you running under load, and also idle? And, how long do you plan to keep this computer? It is far more likely that another piece of hardware will fail before your GPU, if you intend to hold onto this thing for 10 years. The reality is, you probably won't end up doing that. And if I recall correctly, the average lifespan of a mobile GPU is 7-10 years running at normal operating temps.

Also, your 2d/3d/3d performance clocks should be changing the clocks on-the-fly anyhow. Even if you have 3DAero, that doesn't matter. 3d performance clocks are different than 3d clocks, and 2d clocks. If that GPU fan quits pulling air as often, then your CPU will create more internal heat as well..and then ya gotta deal with that fan problem.

If you're doing it for true gains(or temp losses), then you're never going to realize if it ever helped..aside from you not hearing fans spin up. And, if that's the case..which by your earlier comment leads me to believe it is, then turn on some music, the TV, a ceiling fan.. those lil notebook fans arent all that loud.

 

I hang my 7811fx on a cloths line with the CPU cover off aand a big dukie FAN blowing on it.

 

Hmm, I'd like to give you the temps, but I just cleared the games to cut the first backup prior to installing XP on it. When I get XP on it, I'll set things up again and do the testing/underclocking/etc.

As far as true gains go, if I never hear the fan unless I'm playing a game, and the games play fine, and I never have a GPU heat or fan problem for the 3-4 years that I will have this machine, then I will just go on teh internet and tell everyone what I did was great and it worked miracles.

Isn't that what everyone does? xD

 

Hahahaha I'm glad I'm not the only one using that Walmart Rolodex stand. Here's my modifications with some Antec fans:





I took out the silver part actually, and the fans help elevate the part beneath the hard drive.

 

Nice JBN, what do your temps look like under load with that pad?

 

And undervolt:


And here WITHOUT undervolt:


(I added the undervolt just to show how much of a difference undervolting can do, it has nothing to do with this thread =P)

 

Very nice, JBN. +rep cause you're cool anyhow